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Newbie wants to get better at orchestral arrangement

Hi! As explained above I'm all new to the orchestral bit and I would like to know if you have some suggestions as to how I can improve my arrangements to make them more... well "real" i guess. Do you have any suggestions to readingmaterial, tutorials and so on? And ofcourse your own opinions and skills not to forgett!

This is a piece I've maid with Miroslav Philharmonik and although it's nothing near a great arrangement I'm pretty pleased with it so far It will grow as I get better!

Re: Newbie wants to get better at orchestral arrangement

Get your hands on every orchestration book you can buy. Read them over and over. If you need to work on voice leading, struggle through a harmony course. Get top scores by top orchestrators (Ravel, Tchaikovsky, Holst, Berlioz, etc) and dissect them to bits. Most importantly, listen critically at all times.

Re: Newbie wants to get better at orchestral arrangement

Hey yeah, find the score of music you like and copy what that composer does. Take bits and ideas you like from different composers: Beethoven, NIN, Elfman, whoever you like. You will soon come to your own style of writing, influenced from these different sources.

This is the most ancient way of studying composition (or any skill, for that matter).

Lots of scores of classical composers (Beethoven, Brahms) are in the public domain and you can find PDFs online, for free starters.

Re: Newbie wants to get better at orchestral arrangement

Try to remember that no matter the size of an Orchestra,it is essentially made up of 4 different sections-Strings,Brass,Woodwinds and Percussion.
Think of it in broad strokes and then as you learn more,refine your efforts.

Pick up the Star Wars-A New Hope Special Edition soundtrack and keep it close as one of the most invaluable refence guides you will ever possess by the Dean of soundtracks,John Williams.Do lots of critical listening until you can identify what instruments are sounding at anyone time,and why they are orchestrated the way they are.

I understand the Guide to MIDI Orchestration by Paul Gilreath is quite the book to have so snag a copy of it.

Re: Newbie wants to get better at orchestral arrangement

i would also suggest studying renaissance and baroque counterpoint. (I can guarantee you that both Beethoven and John Williams did so.) You can dive right into the renaissance counterpoint without knowing much harmony, and i wish i had done renaissance counertpoint first, so i'd do that. The book by gaudlin appears to be a good one.

Re: Newbie wants to get better at orchestral arrangement

Hi thrinithan,

buy the GPO from Garry Garritan as well as the book "The guide to midi orchestration" by Paul Gillreath (www.amazon.com) and try to put into the practice the red things.
I think this will be a good entrance into these field of musical arrangements.

Re: Newbie wants to get better at orchestral arrangement

Originally Posted by thrinithan

Hi! As explained above I'm all new to the orchestral bit and I would like to know if you have some suggestions as to how I can improve my arrangements to make them more... well "real" i guess. Do you have any suggestions to readingmaterial, tutorials and so on? And ofcourse your own opinions and skills not to forgett!

This is a piece I've maid with Miroslav Philharmonik and although it's nothing near a great arrangement I'm pretty pleased with it so far It will grow as I get better!